


Another Joke

by Siver



Series: Final Fantasy VI/Ghost Trick [24]
Category: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, FFVI GT AU, Final Fantasy VI AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 05:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21049268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siver/pseuds/Siver
Summary: Jowd didn't expect to see any of them again and now he's travelling with the man he can't be sure he knows anymore. A night shortly after reuniting in Tzen





	Another Joke

**Author's Note:**

> Fictober Day 15

It had been a long day. They’d all been long and often blurred together, but this day they travelled longer than Jowd normally did and longer than the previous day to get well away from the Jester’s tower. Jowd had looked upon it from a distance many times. It was an eyesore, but a handy landmark, well done to him.

Cidgeon and Cabanela hadn’t taken the place so well. The whole world was dead. One place was bad as any other, but they had clearly felt something during this leg of the trip he hadn’t. Their pace slowed, though they both refused to stop even for a short time and Cidgeon catching Cabanela’s arm as he’d gradually veered away from them toward the tower had been of little comfort. The confusion flashing to fury and disgust across Cabanela’s face and back to carefully crafted neutrality even less so. And how easily Jowd still understood each expression the least of all.

Eventually they escaped the tower’s shadow and as the darkness grew deeper set up a small camp. The day had been different; the night turned as any other.

It was late enough to be called early as Jowd made another circle around their camp. He paused near Cabanela. At least he was finally asleep, the blanket Cidgeon had pushed at him half fallen away. Awake, he still had that intensity that told him he was Cabanela. Even while seemingly bent under some unseen weight as they passed the tower, Jowd had still caught a blazing fierceness in his eyes before he looked away. Now he simply looked diminished, worn out. He seemed thinner Jowd thought, as if he hadn’t been all angles as was. He could be assured he wasn’t the jester, but was he really Cabanela either?

Jowd took an abrupt step back as Cabanela shifted with a low groan and a shiver that knocked the blanket even further askew. He froze like a small child caught red handed before shaking himself. He was only making a round around the camp and Cabanela remained asleep.

After a moment’s hesitation and certainty that Cabanela wasn’t waking up, he knelt beside him and pulled the blanket up more securely, trying to keep his gaze away from the furrows carved deep into Cabanela’s brow. His hand hovered over his shoulder. He drew back and retreated to the fire’s opposite side.

A different impulse took him and he pulled out his paintbrush. Fast practiced strokes through the air created the image he’d seen over and over again this past year. Cabanela stood tall and proud. Bright and lively and… Jowd dashed a hand through the image. It wavered and fell apart into wisps that faded away as quickly as they came. Undeserved.

He lifted the brush and just as quickly created a different image. He too held that same pride with a cruel twist to his mouth. The same face made up. He snorted to himself. Literally as it turned out and yet… It was a more familiar face. Certainly more so than the one lying just a few feet away. He let the image fade with a heavy sigh.

Both chapters came to an end and they were left in a fitting ruin. So be it.

He settled himself by the remaining embers of the fire and waited, watching while the world slowly lightened to grey. It was almost time for another day. He chuckled. Time for another day to travel to places that may no longer exist with a man he thought no longer existed. The world kept turning and as ever the joke was on them.


End file.
